2015 Sage Pastel Xpress Year-end Guideezines.pastel.co.za/.../SPA_XpressV14_Year_End_Guide_2015.pdf · 2015 Sage Pastel Xpress Year-end Guide !3! Welcome to your ... With Sage Pastel

2015 Sage Pastel Xpress Year-end Guide 1


Welcome to your Sage Pastel Xpress Year-end Guide ........................................................................................ 3

Website and online support ............................................................................................................................. 3

Support operating hours .................................................................................................................................. 3

Contacting Sage Pastel ................................................................................................................................... 3

Online Registration ........................................................................................................................................... 4

Summary of the Year-end Procedure ............................................................................................................... 4

Step 1: Before the Year End ............................................................................................................................ 5

Step 2: Preparing for the Year End .................................................................................................................. 7

Step 3: Running the Year End ........................................................................................................................ 19

Step 4: After the Year End ............................................................................................................................. 22

Troubleshooting your Year End ......................................................................................................................... 23

Open batches ................................................................................................................................................ 23

Point of Sale System Date Error ..................................................................................................................... 24

Data Integrity Errors ........................................................................................................................................ 24

Frequently asked questions ........................................................................................................................... 25

Support Details ................................................................................................................................................. 26

Contents


Welcome to your Sage Pastel Xpress Year-end Guide

As the year end draws closer, we understand the overwhelming challenge which confronts you, having to

ensure that the whole year’s accounts are prepared correctly, and that your financial records are

completed for auditing. This year-end guide highlights important steps when using your Sage Pastel

software to ensure successful completion of your financial year end.

This guide is produced exclusively for you, our Sage Pastel Business Care License customer, because

we want you to spend less time in support queues and more time managing your business efficiently.

While most of the information in this manual is for both Sage Pastel Xpress Start-Up and Sage Pastel

Xpress users, some of the functionality might differ between the two products. Please be aware of

NOTED areas to make sure that you make the correct choices based on your product type.

Website and onl ine support

This guide is available electronically on the Customer Zone. Additionally, we have provided

comprehensive tips, tricks, updated troubleshooting documents for common errors encountered and

frequently asked questions, which all aim to assist you in the year-end process. The Frequently Asked

Questions section in this guide contains time saving tips.

Support operat ing hours

The operating hours, applicable for March and April only, are as follows:

Monday – Thursday: 07h30 – 18h00

Friday: 08h00 – 16h30

Saturday: 09h00 – 13h00

Please note that Sage Pastel is closed on all public holidays.

Contact ing Sage Pastel

When contacting Sage Pastel, use the following telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses:

Type of Enquiry Telephone Fax E-mail

Technical Queries 011 304 3300

086 11 COVER 011 304 3731 [email protected]

New Sales and Upgrades 011 304 3600 011 304 3651 [email protected]

New Registrations or

Re-Registrations 086 11 COVER 011 304 3979 [email protected]

Note:

Always have your Customer Number handy when contacting Sage Pastel Support to ensure your call is

routed correctly and efficiently.


Online Registrat ion

For your convenience, you are now able to obtain a registration code for your re-registration, upgrade

registration or the registration of a new package online. Visit the Sage Pastel website www.pastel.co.za,

and select the Register Your Software option on the Customer Zone with your serial number and

customer number.

Summary of the Year-end Procedure

The Sage Pastel Xpress Year-end procedure is broken down into four major steps:

STEP 1: Before the Year End

a) User Access and Multi-period Processing

b) Making Use of Period 13

c) Running a Year End on a network or multi-user site.

STEP 2: Preparing for the Year End

a) The importance of making a backup

i. How to make a backup

ii. Sage Pastel IronTree backup solution

iii. How to restore a backup

b) The Retained Income Account

i. What is a Retained Income Account

ii. How to create the Retained Income Account

c) Completing a Stock Take/Inventory Count

d) Updating Point of Sale Cash on Deliveries/Documents on hold

e) Making a copy of the company

f) Completing the necessary printouts

g) Completing the checklist

STEP 3: Running the Year End

a) What happens during the Year-end procedure

b) Running the Year End

STEP 4: After the Year End

a) Ensuring the Year End has been successful

b) Settings for the new financial year

This guide will assist in the correct processing of your Year End to prevent unnecessary pressure and

frustration.


Step 1: Before the Year End

At the end of the financial year, you need to run the y ear-end procedure. With Sage Pastel Xpress,

this process is automated and prepares the company for the new year. During the year-end procedure,

relevant account balances and budgets will be transferred, transactions deleted and parameters set.

However, there is some preparation required prior to running the year-end procedure.

With Sage Pastel Xpress and Sage Pastel Xpress Start-Up, the month end process is not necessary, as it

may be with other accounting systems. This is because Sage Pastel Xpress is a multi-period system.

However, it is necessary to ensure that a user does not process entries into the incorrect month in

error, since this will result in incorrect values appearing on your reports and in your age analysis. You can

prevent mistakes like these by setting up user passwords and restrictions.

If you choose not to allow multi-period processing, you will need to run a Period Increment (i.e. ‘move’

the system from the current period to the next. E.g. change from month 1 to month 2). You will have to

do this at the end of every month or first thing the following month to ensure the user is able to process

in the correct month.

a) User Access and Mult i-per iod

Processing

- Select Setup…Users/Passwords…Users and select a user.

- Select the relevant user’s setup.

- The following screen will display:

Deselect the Multi Period

Processing by unchecking the

Allowed option

- Under the heading General Ledger, deselect the option Multi Period Processing and click

OK.


- To change the period you will need to do the following:

o Select Change from the menu bar.

o Choose the option Period Increment; the following screen will be displayed.

Click on Process to complete the increment

o Once you select the Process option, the period will automatically increment.

o This must be done every month.

b) Making Use of Per iod 13

In Sage Pastel Xpress, we added functionality to make use of an additional period and to allow a period

of ‘grace’ or ‘extend’ the time in which your year end has to be completed.

Period 13 can be used in two ways but must be set up prior to completing the year-end process.

1. Period 13 can become period 1 of your new financial year (new way)

a. Making use of period 13 in this way, will allow you to continue your normal day to day

processing without the pressure of completing your year end on the last day of the

financial year.

b. After the year end has been completed, any transactions processed in period 13 will

automatically be ‘moved’ to period 1 of the new financial year.

c. The previous financial year will reflect only 12 periods.

d. If you make use of this option, you must ensure you are aware of what the last period is.

e. If you have this option checked and your last period is period 12 and not 13, then period 12

will become period 1 of the following year.

2. Period 13 allows you to extend the financial year by a period that is then included in the current

financial year (traditional way).

a. The year-end process will close off the financial year at the end of Period 13.

b. Making use of Period 13 in this way will increase your financial year by one period

which means the financial year has 13 months as opposed to 12. E.g. if Period 1 in

your current financial year is March 2013, after the year end, Period 1 in the new financial

year will be April 2014.

c. If you make use of this option, you must remember when extracting reports you will need

to use 13 periods to get an accurate annual figure.


To make your selection, go to Setup and then select Periods. Please note that the system is

automatically placed in single user (sole access) mode, and processing cannot take place by any other

users on the network.

The following screen will display:

Check this option if you

wish Period 13 to become

Period 1 of the new year.

Remember to ensure that

the last period is correct

before running the year end

c) Running a year end on a network or mult i-user s ite

If you are making use of a multi-user environment where you run Sage Pastel Xpress on a network, we

strongly recommend that you perform the year-end process on the server. If this is not possible then we

suggest that you copy the data to a local drive (C:\) on one of the workstations and complete the year-

end process on this local machine.

Year end can be a lengthy process and by executing this on the server or local machine, you will

ensure the process is completed as quickly as possible, allowing your users to post transactions again

with minimal delay.

Step 2: Preparing for the Year End

a) The Importance of Making a Backup

Data loss is an unforeseen but very real danger. Backups are therefore vital to retain the integrity of your

data. Multiple backup sets will enable you to restore your data as recent or long ago as you require.

Typically you should use three sets of backup disks. These disks should be rotated (i.e. an odd and even

set of disks for different days of the week). With this method, previous backups could be used should

the latest backup set be damaged, requiring only minimal data recapture.

When creating the backup, make sure you back up the complete company. Avoid just backing up

specific files, even if your backup program allows this type of operation, since it’s very easy to miss

the one file that’s crucial to the restoration process.


Always make a backup:

- Before doing a year end; this backup should be kept in a safe place, separate from daily backups.

- Before making an adjustment, deleting or purging historical data.

- Before running any of the Data Integrity options on the File | Data Integrity menu.

T ips for your back up procedure:

- We recommend that you back up to a CD, DVD or removable hard drive.

- You should label your backups clearly and in the case of a year-end backup never overwrite it.

- It is also advisable, if possible, to keep backups in a fire proof safe.

- As a precautionary measure, make more than two sets of backups and store them in different

physical locations.

If the year-end procedure does not complete for any reason you will have to restore the data from the

backup and redo the year-end procedure.

The Troubleshooting section at the end of this guide lists some errors that may occur during the year-

end procedure and in many instances restoring a backup is the only course of action.

It is also recommended that you run the Data Integrity function before making this final backup. This

will allow you to confirm that your data has absolutely no errors before initiating the year-end process.

If you work in a multi-user or network environment, we recommend that you run the data integrity on the

server or copy the data to the local drive of one of the workstations. Running the Data Integrity can be

time consuming on large sets of data and users are not able to process while this is running.

Remember to have a valid backup of the current data as it is prior to running the Data Integrity.


i . How to make a Backup

1) In your company, go to File and select Backup.

2) On the next screen, select the Verify Method as Ensure Files Readable.

3) Then double-click on the location you wish to back up to, click on Process to begin the backup.

Check the Ensure Files Readable Option

Click on Process to start the back up

You cannot back up directly to CD or DVD from Sage Pastel Xpress. There are many variations of CD

and DVD writing software. For us to make a choice of one of these as our standard feature would limit

your choice as a customer to a single backup solution.

Therefore, if you are going to back up to CD or DVD, you will have to back up to your hard drive and then

copy the backup to CD or DVD or alternatively make use of our online backup facility, Pastel IronTree.

i i . Sage Pastel I ronTree Backup Solut ion

Sage Pastel IronTree is a cost effective online data backup service for SMEs. The backup process is

automated which means there is no room for human error. If you lose data that is critical to your

business, you can access backed up information 24 hours a day. Go to www.pastelirontree.co.za to

sign up or speak to your Pastel Support Consultant.

i i i . How to Restore a Backup

To restore the data repeat the steps to back up your data as above, but select the Restore option.

If the company does not already exist on the local drive (e.g. you made a backup from one machine

and you wish to restore on another) then you will first need to create a company, with no data. The

company must have the same name as that of the company you are restoring. The Restore option will

then restore the data into the newly created company.

Note: Ensure that you are in the correct company within Sage Pastel that you wish to restore data to, or you

may receive an error.


To run the Data Integrity before your final y ear-end backup:

- Go to File.

- Select Data Integrity.

- Click on Next and the following screen will be displayed.

Select the option to Verify Data

only and then click on Process to

start the integrity check

- Select the option ‘Verify the Data Only’.

- Click on Process.

Should you encounter any problems with your data verification please refer to the Troubleshooting

section at the end of this guide.

You also have the option to make your backup from within the year-end Assistant.

b) The Retained Income Account

i. What is the Retained Income Account?

a. The Retained Income account is a Balance Sheet account to which the profit or loss

for the year is posted. This account must exist in order for the year-end procedure to

be processed.

ii. How to create a Retained Income Account

a. Go to Edit and select General Ledger.

b. Click on Accounts and search for the Retained Income Account to make sure it does

not exist.

c. If this account already exists then ensure that it is allocated to the B15 Retained

Income Balance Sheet Financial Category.

d. If this account does not exist then you can create it by clicking on New which will

display the screen below:


Make sure the account falls within

the 5000 range

Ensure you select the option

Balance Sheet

Select the B15 Financial Category

e. Type in an account number, which should be within the range of Balance Sheet

accounts, which are normally in the 5000-9999 range.

f. Type in a description and then allocate the account to the B15 Retained Income

Financial Category.

g. Click on the Save icon to save your changes and then the Exit icon to leave the

screen.

Note: If you are using the default standard Generic Chart of Accounts the Retained Income account number

w i l l be 5200/000.

c) Complet ing a Stock Take/ Inventory Count

It is critical to do the Stock Take or Inventory Count before the year-end process occurs. By completing

the stock take you are ensuring that the theoretical count (stock count on the system) is the same as the

physical count (the manual process of counting the stock items on hand). Should there be differences,

the system will make the necessary adjustments to reflect the quantities as you capture them.

Sage Pastel Xpress has not previously had the facility to complete a stock take within the software.

Previously you only had the option to process Inventory Journals to update the quantities. The Inventory

Count Assistant will guide you through the process of counting inventory quantities, and then reconciling

physical and theoretical quantities.


d) Running the Inventory Count Procedure

i. Update outstanding customer and supplier documents as well as any unposted inventory

journals in order to ensure an accurate count.

ii. Go to Process and select Count Inventory

iii. You will be asked if you wish to rebuild your batch quantities before doing your inventory

count. We recommend that you do this to make sure that the physical quantities reflected

during the inventory count procedure are correct.

We recommend you

select Yes to rebuild the

batch quantities

iv. The first step in the Inventory Count procedure entails taking a Snapshot of your inventory

file.

v. This Snapshot is a copy of the theoretical quantities on hand at this point in time, as it is

reflected in Sage Pastel Xpress

Click Next to take a

snapshot

vi. Click on Next to continue with creating the Snapshot for this Inventory Count. The following

screen will be displayed:

Select to print a count sheet

viii Select the option ‘Print a count sheet’, which will print a document with the selected

Inventory Items and you can then enter the physical quantity on hand.


ix No quantities are printed on the sheet, but a space is left to enter physical quantities that

you count.

x. Click on Next to print the count sheets. Once you have completed counting all your stock

and entering the physical quantities onto your count sheets you can click on the Next

button.

xi. The following screen will be displayed:

Select the option ‘Enter

or edit physical quantities

on hand’ to fill in the

counted quantities

xii. Now select the option Enter or Edit the physical quantities on hand.

xiii Click on Next again to begin to enter the physical quantities. Before updating this screen

you need to ensure that the physical items have been counted as these may well differ from

the quantities that you have in the snapshot.

Items in red may be

service items or could

have been left out of the

snapshot

Enter the counted

quantities


xiii. Once the physical quantities are entered you can print an Inventory Count Variance Report

to show the difference in physical and theoretical quantities. If necessary you can adjust any

of the physical quantities entered in the previous step.

Choose the option to

print the count variance

report

xiv. You will be required to make selections on the report pertinent to your business.

Make the required

selections in order to

print the Inventory Count

Variance Report

xv. Once you have printed your Inventory Count Variance report you are able to update your

stock file if you are happy with the variances reported.

xvi. If, however, you are not happy with the reported variances, do not update the Inventory

Count but return to the Enter or Edit the Physical Quantities option to make changes to the

quantities entered in order to correct your Inventory Count variances.

Select the option to

update the differences

between the counts and

clear the snapshot


xvii. Once you have resolved any differences, you must instruct the system to update the

variances. The system makes the adjustments via inventory journals. If there are no

differences to update, you can clear the snapshot without updating.

Note: It is critical that you update the differences in the correct period and on the correct date to avoid ‘Date

out of Period Processing’ errors. This update is normally done in the last period of the year.

Ensure the Inventory

Variance is processed in

the correct period

xviii. It is critical that you ensure the Snapshot has been updated correctly. You can do this in one

of two ways:

a. Run the Quantity Report by selecting View, Inventory and selecting this report. Make

sure that the ‘Show Zero Quantity Items’ option is selected. Check to see that the

quantities have actually been updated.

b. Alternatively go back into the Snapshot by selecting Process | Count Inventory and

following the wizard as detailed above. Ensure that the quantities have no value which

will indicate that they have been updated.

e) POS Documents on Hold and COD’s

Before the year-end process is run, all the Open Batches need to be updated. This includes documents

that are On Hold and Cash on Delivery (COD) transactions in Pastel Point of Sale.

To update documents that are On Hold and COD transactions do the following:

i. Log into POS as the user that processed the COD or On Hold transaction. Once in the program,

go to Process | Point Of Sale, if you are not taken to the processing screen automatically.

ii. Click on the Edit button.

iii. Select the document type that you would like to edit from the Search Types dropdown list. A list

of invoices will display. Left click on the first invoice and click on select.


iv. The invoice will display on your screen. Deselect the option On Hold or Cash On Delivery by

clicking on the Place on Hold or Cash on Delivery tab.

v. Then go to Process | Update all Batches. Click on Start and all the invoices will be updated and

will not show on the Open batches screen.

f ) Making a Copy of the Company

This step is optional, but highly recommended. If you have enough disk space, you can create a new

company as a copy of your company prior to the year end.

This is useful because you can continue to do queries on transactions and balances which are more than

two years old. You can also choose whether you wish to run the year end in the original company or in

the copied company.

If you decide to do this, we suggest that you change the password(s) on the copied company to prevent

you from inadvertently posting entries into that company. This is done under Setup, and by then selecting

Users and Passwords.

You can create this company from a screen within the Year-end Assistant.

Note: Copying the company is not a procedure which is sufficient as a backup, if your hard disk fails you will

lose the data of both companies.


Create a copy

Run the year end in the

new or copy company

Note: If you are using Sage Pastel Xpress Start-Up you are not offered the opportunity to copy your

company in the manner detailed above. This is because Sage Pastel Xpress Start-Up is a single user,

single company product.

Sage Pastel Xpress Start-Up allows you access to one company only. You would need to ensure you

have a valid backup on your computer or backup device.

g) Complet ing the necessary Pr intouts

We recommend that, at the very least, you make the following printouts before running the year end. You

should then re-run these reports after the year end to ensure that the process has been successful.

i. Trial Balance for the year including sub accounts.

ii. Balance Sheet and Income Statement for the year.

iii. Detailed Ledger for all accounts and all periods.

iv. Customer and Supplier Age Analysis reports.

iv. There may be other reports which are important to your business or are required by your auditor.

Be sure to print these reports as well:

i. Budgets for this year and last year.

ii. Inventory Valuation and Quantity report.

The above reports are recommendations only. Please consult with your accountant or auditor to make sure

that you have a comprehensive list of required reports prior to running the year-end process.


h) Complet ing the Checkl ist

Use this handy check list to ensure you are prepared for your year-end procedure:

TASK DONE

BASE MODULE

1. Have you updated all your Batches?

2. Have you run the Data Integrity with the following options:

- Verify history files only?

- Verify data files only?

- Rebuild batch quantities?

3. Have you set up your Retained Income account?

4. Are you happy with the way in which Period 13 will be treated?

5. Have you ensured there are no unreconciled bank transactions from more than 2 years

ago?

INVENTORY MODULE

6. Have you completed your Inventory Count?

ADD ON MODULES

7. Have you updated your Point of Sale COD’s and Documents On Hold?

GENERAL

8. Have you printed the following reports?

- Trial Balance for the full year with sub accounts?

- Balance Sheet and Income Statement for the year?

- Detailed Ledger for all accounts for all periods?

- Customer & Supplier Age Analysis reports?

- A list of outstanding Sales Orders, Purchase Orders and GRNs?

- Inventory Valuation and quantities report?

- Budgets for this year and last year?

9. Have you made reliable backups and a Copy Company for easy reference

purposes?

10. Have you logged in as the Supervisor?


Step 3: Running the Year End

a) Running the year end and what happens dur ing the year-end procedure

During the Year-end process a number of things happen:

i . General Ledger, Customers, Suppl iers & Retained Income

a. For Income Statement accounts, current year balances move to last year.

b. For Balance Sheet accounts, last year balances are retained as one total, and the current

balance moves to last year.

c. Current year balances are set to zero, except your opening balances for Balance Sheet

accounts.

d. Current budgets move to last year budgets, future budgets move to current budgets, and

next year budgets are zeroed.

e. The Profit or Loss for the year is posted to the Retained Income account.

f. This year’s balances and sales/purchases values are zeroed.

g. This year’s transactions become last year’s transactions and no activity will be displayed for

the current year.

i i . Inventory

a. Costs, sales, and quantity values for the year are accumulated into the last year totals, and

the current values are cleared.

b. The closing balance of last year will be the opening balance for the current year.

i i i . Periods

a. In the period table, the year will be incremented by an additional year and the period end

dates are adjusted if necessary, for example, for leap years.

b. The current period is set to one for single period users.

c. Note that the setting you selected for Use Last Period as First Period of Next Year, will

remain unchanged.


You run the year-end procedure by selecting the Change and then Year End menu option. The year end is

assistant-driven and will prompt you within the relevant screens, to guide you through a successful year

end. Here are the steps in the Year-end Assistant:

Click on Next to begin

the Year-end Procedure

or click on Backup if you

wish to do your Backup

now.

Choose to either Create a

new copy company or

not. If you choose to

create a copy company,

type in the copy

company name. Click on

Next to continue.

Be sure to have run the relevant reports required for your business. Click on Next to continue.

Note: Sage Pastel Xpress Start-Up will not allow you to ‘Create a New Company’. It is critical to ensure you

have a valid, reliable backup of your data before proceeding with the year end.


This screen confirms what

the year-end procedure does.

Click on Next to continue.

Note: The period table does not need to be updated manually. This increment will be done automatically.


Step 4: After the Year End

Sage Pastel Xpress retains transaction history for two financial years. It is possible to post

transactions in both the current year and last year. However the last year’s transactions are limited to

Journals, Cashbook & Bank Reconciliations. You cannot process any Customer or Supplier documents

into last year.

In order to process in the new financial year, a year end has to be done at the end of the current

financial year. Although the year end is not time critical, you will not be able to process any

Documents, Cashbook Transactions, Other Journals or the Bank Reconciliation in the new financial

year until the current year end has been completed.

Any invoices that are “ON HOLD” at the time of running the year-end procedure can be left on hold,

however, when the time comes to update these invoices they will have to be updated in the new year.

They cannot be updated in the previous year.

a) Ensuring the year end has been successful

Your final steps in successfully completing your year-end procedure are as follows:

i. Run the Data Integrity again, for more information, see Step 2: Preparing for the Year End.

ii. Print the entry type details report for this year and look for date out of period entries.

a) To find this report select View | General Ledger | Transactions and click on Entry Type

Details. (E.g. if the start of your current year is March 2014 and you find transactions for

March 2015 it means that the year end did not complete successfully).

b) If you do find date out of period entries, you will need to restore your backup and re-run

the year-end process.

iii. Print the Age Analysis and compare it to the Trial Balance and control accounts.

iv. Check the budgets to verify that the current year’s budgets are transferred to last year and next

year’s budgets (if you entered them previously) are now displayed in this year.

v. Print the Trial Balance and compare it to the previous year. Should your Trial Balance not balance

refer to the next section, Troubleshooting.

b) Sett ings for the new f inancia l year

i. Make sure that the period setup is correct by going to Setup | Periods and check that the dates

for the new financial year are correct.


iii. If you have made a copy company, ensure that you are processing the information in the correct

company for the new financial year.

iv. If you have completed your year end on the server or local drive, ensure the other users on the

network are able to gain access to the correct company to continue the day-to-day activities.

Congratulations, your year end should now be complete!

Troubleshooting your Year End

Open batches

When starting the year end procedure you receive the following error message:

This means that the company you are trying to run the year-end procedure in currently has open

batches. You will not be able to run a year-end procedure until all open batches have been updated. To

locate which users have not updated their batches use the following procedure:

1. Select View | Open Batches from the main menu. The following screen displays:

Username

Transaction Type

Jump to

2. Select the Open Batch, click on the Jump To button. This will take you to the relevant batch in

order for you to update it.

3. Take note of the detail displayed at the bottom left corner of the screen – the above example

shows that there are open Sage Pastel POS batches. The user would then need to open the POS

application and update the batches.


Note: Should you continue to receive this message after updating all the batches, contact your Sage Pastel

Dealer or the Sage Pastel Support Line.

Point of Sale System Date Error

Pastel Point of Sale uses the computer date for all the processing that is done. If a year end has not yet

been run, and the system date is set to the 1st day of the new financial year, users will get an error

message that the date does not fall within the financial year set up in Sage Pastel Xpress:

To resolve this, users should run the year-end procedure in order for the current dates to roll over to the

next financial year. Alternatively, you can delay running the year end process by extending your

financial period to 13 months. Follow these steps to set this up:

• Log in as a Supervisor user in Sage Pastel Xpress.

• Go to Setup | Periods.

• In the number of periods box, type in 13.

• Tick the option Use Last Period as the first Period of Next Year. This will carry over all

transactions processed in the 13th period to the first period of the new financial year.

• Click on the OK button to save your changes.

Data Integrity Errors

When running your Data Integrity you may receive any one of the following errors:

“Account xyz is missing”

Sage Pastel Xpress runs through the transaction file and the master files for the General Ledger,

Customers and Suppliers. The integrity check may find a transaction to a specific account in the

transaction file, but when it gets to the master files, that account is not there. It then stops the integrity

check immediately and gives you this error.

You then need to re-create the account in Sage Paste Xpress. Please be aware that since the integrity

check stops at this point and reports an error, there may be other errors which have not yet been found.

Note: Due to the complexity of the correction of the Main Account Balances/Sub Account Balances and the

Account Balances/Transactions and Last Year Profit and Loss, we recommend that these errors be

corrected by a Certified Pastel Dealer only. Alternatively contact the Sage Pastel Support Line.


Main Account Balances/Sub-Account Balances

In your General Ledger Master file, you have records for each Main Account and immediately following

each Main Account, are records for the related Sub Accounts should there be any. Sage Pastel Xpress

adds up the values in each group of sub accounts, and checks whether the total for each period is the

same as the values for that period in the main account record. If it is not, you will get the error relevant to

the Main/Sub Account Balances. This discrepancy between the balances in the main and sub accounts

needs to be corrected before doing anything else.

Account Balances/Transact ions

Sage Pastel Xpress Version 12 goes through the transaction file and adds up the transactions per period,

per account. It then goes to the Customer, Supplier or General Ledger Master Files and checks whether

the balance stored for that period for the relevant account corresponds with the total of the transaction

records in the transaction file. If they do not correspond, you will have errors appearing under this section

heading. The error will list the account, the master file balance, the transaction file balance, and the

difference between these two amounts.

Last Year Prof i t and Loss out by X amount

Each year a profit/loss is made by the business and this can be seen on the Income Statement. When a

year end is run, the profit/loss for the new year is reset to zero, because the profit/loss figure is added to

the Retained Income for the previous year. The retained income balance is made up of all the previous

profits/losses since the business began and you can see this figure on the Balance Sheet.

Frequently asked questions

This section provides a list of common year end queries and answers to help you quickly resolve any

problems you may encounter.

Q: Can I pr int my previous year F inancia l Reports after I have run a year-end procedure?

A: Yes you can. When printing your reports, make sure that you deselect the “This Year” check box.

Deselect this check box


Q: Can I process transact ions in the previous year once I have completed the Year-end

procedure?

A: Yes, you are able to process General Ledger Transactions, Customers and Supplier Journals,

Cashbook transactions and a Bank Reconciliation in the previous year by clicking on Settings on any

batch processing screen and deselecting the “This Year Transactions” check box.

Deselect the This Year Transactions

check box

Q: What other types of problems can I encounter dur ing year end and what should I do i f

I do encounter them?

A: You could encounter any one of the following problems whilst running your year-end procedure:

• A power failure.

• Your computer could freeze.

• You could encounter a data error.

In the above situations you will need to restore your backup, correct the errors, and restart the year-end

procedure.

Support Details

011 304 3300

011 304 3731

[email protected]

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